This page deals with everything Go players might want to do with a Palm. When I say Palm, I am referring to a handheld computer running Palm OS. Several makers offer Palm OS devices. I used a Palm IIIxe and a Sony Clie PEG-SJ22 for my reviews. For other devices see Go Programs.[2]
The original Palms had black and white LCD displays with a resolution of 160x160 pixels. This is just enough to display a full 19x19 Go board plus a little info on the side. Recently a new generation of Palms has appeared with colour displays having 320x320 pixels. While the latter are much easier on the eyes when reading for several hours, the former are a very handy and cheap way to record SGF at tournaments.
Beware of the Palm IIIc, which was a low resolution color Version of the Palm III. This display is imho not suitable for viewing Go diagrams, because the different colors of the subpixels stand out too much.
Even with handhelds, there is a lot of talk about CPU speed. From my own experience I can say, that I have never had any speed problems with the software described on this page.
Early Palms came with only one megabyte of RAM. This is more than enough for SGF reading and a Joseki dictionary. If you want to carry around Senseis Library you should have a device with a memory card slot and a Memory card of >= 64 MB.
Memory cards have another great advantage. You can back up your Palm onto one. If your battery goes flat and you lose the contents of your RAM, you can restore from the card. Otherwise the only backup option is a desktop computer, which you might not have with you.
Newer Palms all have a built in battery, which can be recharged using a litte power adaptor. Older units feed on standard AAA batteries. The Palm keeps its RAM content intact for a few seconds while you change the batteries.
In addition to a Palm, you need a desktop computer from which you can load Programs and files into the handheld.
One nice feature that was introduced with the Palm III, is an IR communications port. Using this, you can beam documents and programs from one Palm to another. This is a very cool feature fo sharing game records. One player (or a spectator) can record the game and later beam it to the handhelds of all interested players. No cables needed.
This section describes the various software packages you might want to install on your Palm.[1]
This link is broken, but I found it here: http://216.97.122.211/download/Go1_0.zip (although I don't recommend it).
TenGo http://www.eienware.com/tengo/
TenGo is the newest recorder/editor that can read SGF files directly from Palm memory or memory card. It supports variations (even editing), labels, markers, comments etc, editing, pass... It can handle files up to 50kB.
TenGo costs $14.95 which is less than a half the price of PalmSGF which does pretty much the same and has much worse graphics.
Memory requirements: 180k + SGF files
Display: Native support for 320x320 HiRes? with pretty nice graphics.
Current version (July 7, 2004): 1.01
PilotGOne http://minas.ithil.org/pilotgone/
Being the only reason I bought a Palm in the first place, PilotGOne is a very good little SGF recorder and viewer. It is easy to use, needs little memory, and is free. For details see the PilotGOne page.
Memory requirements: 57k + roughly 2k per game
Display: Works fine with 160x160 b/w displays. No native support for 320x320, looks fine on it though (especially if you enable the "hi-res assist" mode, that comes with hi-res Palms.)
Current version (July 21, 2003): 0.8.1
PilotGone can be used with a little work to view the entire Goproblems.com database. It provides a very good platform to attempt problems. All variations are available. See the comments section of goproblems.com database for more info.
PalmSGF is a good review utility. It can be used for game recording but variations are not supported. Commercial software, price $35. Supports SGF files up to 30k in size.
Memory requirements: 91k + size of SGF files
Display: High resolution required.
Hardware Requirements: Tungsten, Clie, and Zire 71 / 72 supported.
Memory Card: full support for memory card and onboard memory.
Current version (July 21, 2003): 1.1.0
This is a port of the Many Faces of Go joseki library for the Palm. It shows the entire board and marks moves that are joseki.
Since there is no comment given on the various moves, this is imho not so great for learning joseki. Makes a fine reference though. Maybe someone with more experience in Joseki can shed some light on the completeness of the database.
This is commercial software. More Info and a free demo can be found at http://www.smart-games.com/PalmOS.html
Memory requirements: 83k
Display: Works fine with 160x160 b/w displays. No native support for 320x320, looks fine on it though. Hi-res assist does not seem to have any effect.
Current version (July 13th, 2003): 1.21
This database of roughly 17000 uncommented pro games comes in two different versions, a colour hi-res version and a b/w lo-res edition.
I got the colour version this morning and will post a more detailed review soon.
First impression: The best looking Goban on a Palm display so far.
This is commercial software. More Info and a free demo can be found at http://www.go4go.net/english/marketplace/palmgo/
Memory requirements: 9276k (so you need either a 16M Palm or a memory card)
Display: Two versions, 160x160 b/w looks fine, 320x320 colour looks simply absolutely wonderful. :-)
Current version (July 13th, 2003): 1.10a
I have not used PilotGO for quite some time. It is a program that plays go against a human opponent and is based on an early version of GnuGo.
Memory requirements: 20k
Display: 160x160 b/w. I have not tested this in colour hi-res.
Current version (July 13th, 2003): 0.31 (has not changed for years)
AIGO is a weak Go playing program for Palm OS but is stronger than PilotGo.
Memory requrements: 180k
Display: 320x320 color and b/w. Works fine on 160x160 b/w.
Current version (Jan 23, 2004): 2.0.0
AtariGo
AtariGo is a reasonable program for playing Atari Go (the capture game) on Palm OS. It is available from http://www.cis.hut.fi/praiko/atarigo/.
Memory requrements: 22k
Display: 160x160 color and b/w.
Current version (Nov 25, 2003): 1.5
Go81 plays Go on 9x9 and 13x13 boards. It a seems slightly stronger than AIGO. Go81 is available from http://www.cis.hut.fi/praiko/go81/.
Memory requrements: 41k
Display: 160x160 color and b/w.
Current version (Jan 23, 2004): 1.5
Ogo plays Go on 7x7, 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19 boards. It claims to be the strongest Palm Go program. Download Ogo from http://www.palmgamingworld.com/board/ogo.shtml. Ogo is shareware and only plays 9x9 unregistered.
Memory requirements: 51k
Display: 160x160 color and b/w.
Current version (July 14, 2004): 1.0
This is the real treat. :-) The entire Senseis library in your shirt pocket. Browse offline everywhere you go.
My first attempt was to crunch the SLSnapshot. This is a bit unwieldy and not recommended, because the formatting is not taylored to a small screen. A more elegant approach is Senseis Library on Tour for the Palm or PocketSL for Pocket PC.
This is how I did it with the SLSnapshot:
These Parameters worked for me:
This creates a file of roughly 34 MB, which you can upload to your memory card. Upload via HotSync is slow (it took me roughly 90 minutes to upload).
The discussion, here was moved to SenseisLibraryOnTour.
[1] Sebastian: I moved the relevant text from handheldsoftware] into the section "What software is there", subsection "Overview", as proposed on Go Programs / Discussion?. I did not try to reconcile this with the other descriptions of software on this page. Here's the previous discussion: -- (2003-09-23)
Discussion of Software
Nico: Doesn't the following software descriptions duplicate the already existing software pages? I'd prefer to have those information merged in the relevant pages (created if appropriate), and a link to handheldsoftware.
HansWiezorke: It is indeed a little redundant. My intention in creating this page was to give a thorough overview of the Palm as a Go players companion. Since I will have some time available in the coming days, I might give the entire handheld complex a master edit.
[2] Page originated by HansWiezorke